The Bloomington, IN, neo-psychedelic folk/indie rock collective
Impossible Shapes have crafted a dark and whimsical Pagan and pseudo-Christian/Egyptian imagery-laden oddity of a record that somehow manages to balance the British folk meanderings of bands like
Pentangle and
Forest with the volatile energy of the late-'70s proto-punk movement.
Horus, their second release for Secretly Canadian and fifth overall, is a celebration of the veiled tinderbox of weirdness that is the American Midwest. Singer/songwriter/guitarist
Chris Barth is the kind of misfit mystic that can deliver a line like "Lighting a candle to Pan/Smoking at night in the van" without the slightest bit of irony, and his imagery-heavy yet strangely simple lyricism is more upfront here than on last year's significantly louder
We Like It Wild. That's not to say that the band is incapable of ferocity -- the glorious "Survival" is the best
Velvet Underground song never made -- but
the Impossible Shapes are not reverential two-chord revivalists; rather they are accomplished musicians who are just as comfortable championing jazzy,
Bert Jansch-influenced ballads ("The Princess") as they are
Television-infused angst rock.
Horus isn't for everybody, but fans of
the Violent Femmes,
Incredible String Band, Danielson Famile, and
Faun Fables will find much to love here. ~ James Christopher Monger